


How You Play The Game

by DesertVixen



Category: Clue | Cluedo (Board Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-23
Updated: 2015-12-23
Packaged: 2018-05-08 13:33:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5498894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertVixen/pseuds/DesertVixen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Clue player gets a little too into the game...</p>
            </blockquote>





	How You Play The Game

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DG_Fletcher](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DG_Fletcher/gifts).



She loved the board game Clue.

But her parents rarely had time to play it with her.

She had tried to interest her younger brother. She thought that playing Clue with a seven-year old wasn’t awesome, but it was better than endless rounds of Candy Land. However, he was still too young to really grasp the rules, or care about following them. 

Her friends would rather play something like Mall Madness or Sweet Valley High, when they agreed to play board games at all. Board games were babyish, they complained. Clue just wasn’t cool anymore. – not compared to games like Spin the Bottle and Truth or Dare.

Sometimes she lucked out, and was able to talk someone into playing, but it always seemed as if the game ended too soon. For her, winning was not everything – playing the game was the important part.

She kept the board set up in her room, just in case. Sometimes she pretended there were other people playing, but imaginary friends did not make good opponents. Sometimes she made up stories about what happened inside the mansion, drawing three of the cards – a Suspect, a Weapon, and a Room – and then constructing a scenario for the group to solve. It wasn’t the same as playing the game, but she did enjoy it.

She had been imagining yet-another-Mr. Boddy-found-dead scenario, twirling the red token between her fingers, when the power went out and what seemed like lightning struck…

*** ***

She had never stepped foot in this place before, but she recognized it instantly. It was exactly how she envisioned the mansion in Clue when she played – a little like the movie, a little like the pictures on the gameboard, and a lot of her own imagination.

She was in the Hall.

She closed her eyes, then opened them again. She was still in the Hall, holding the Candlestick – just like she had imagined Miss Scarlet doing. More than that, she was wearing something slinky, scarlet, and strapless – just as she thought her favorite character should wear. She carried a small black sequin evening bag, unfortunately not large enough to conceal the Candlestick in. 

She pinched herself, wondering if maybe her parents were right and she did have Clue on the brain. Now she was even dreaming about the game.

It hurt.

Somehow this was real. Somehow she was in the game.

Her brain took a moment to process everything, before she turned her attention to other matters – such as the location of Mr. Boddy’s body, and the location of the other people in the house.

The she heard screaming, and grinned. Mrs. Peacock sounded exactly like she imagined her. She set the Candlestick on the mantle, and headed towards the sound of the commotion.

This was going to be fun.

*** ***

They were in the Study, where Mr. Boddy was sprawled on the fine Persian rug. He looked very dead, she thought, and the gleaming Knife sticking out of his chest.

_Who could the killer be?_ She looked forward to playing along and finding out. 

Colonel Mustard was wandering around in his dark yellow suit, muttering military platitudes and not doing much of anything useful. 

“We have to figure out where he was killed,” Mr. Green said in his typical nervous way. 

“I would say that was pretty obvious,” Professor Plum snapped. “The dead body is here in the Study, after all.”

“But he couldn’t have been killed in here,” Mr. Green explained. “There’s no blood.” 

She looked, and saw Mr. Green was right. 

There was absolutely no blood. 

She bit her lip as Mr. Green knelt to examine the body. “There’s another wound entirely,” the nervous man said after a minute. “The killer must have just stuck the Knife in the body after it was moved.”

She frowned, trying to remember the three cards she had drawn from the deck to build her scenario. Try as she might, however, she couldn’t bring them to mind.

“I said, what do you think, Miss Scarlet?” She looked up to see Colonel Mustard glaring at her. She really disliked him. It was always a good day in her book when he was the Suspect card in the envelope. But she realized she had been letting her attention wander for longer than she had thought, and she was starting to look suspicious.

She fumbled with her evening bag, as if she were looking for something. “I suppose we should check all the other rooms to see if there’s blood in them,” she snapped back at the Colonel. She took out the silver compact she imagined Miss Scarlet would carry, and ostentatiously powdered her nose. “But I would have expected a military genius to think of that himself.”

He turned away in a huff, telling the other Suspects they should split up to search the house, with predictable squabbling as a result. She put the compact away in her purse, and felt her fingers brush against something stiff. She turned so the others could not see what she was doing, and pulled out three pasteboard cards.

Colonel Mustard. The Knife. The Kitchen. 

That actually made sense, considering the Secret Passage that connected the Study and the Kitchen. And if Colonel Mustard was smart, he could have easily cleaned the blood up from the tile floor… but she had never really credited Colonel Mustard with too many brains.

She could have just stopped things right then – after all, she knew what the solution to the game was. But winning wasn’t everything. It was how she played the game that was important.

And right now, playing the game right meant making sure she was paired up with Colonel Mustard.

*** ***

She didn’t argue when Colonel Mustard suggested they check the Study thoroughly, just in case there was something to be found. She knew what was in there – the Secret Passage behind the painting.

When she found the catch that made it open, she didn’t have to fake being surprised and excited. 

Colonel Mustard found a flashlight in the desk drawer with ease, which made her think that was probably where he had stashed it after he brought Mr. Boddy’s body into the Study. He clicked it on, and they stepped into the Secret Passage.

Colonel Mustard expressed surprise to find himself in the Kitchen, and started rifling through cabinets and drawers, as if he expected to find a clue in one of them. She studied the black-and-white tile floor, trying to see if there were any traces of red left. It didn’t take her long to find one, and she bent to examine it. 

“Did you find something?” Colonel Mustard asked suddenly, as he noticed her leaning down. 

“I…I think so,” she replied, trying to sound as if she needed his help. “It certainly looks like blood to me.”

He bent to examine it as well, and that was when she noticed something very strange. There appeared to be a dark red stain near one of his pockets, and a small hole in the pocket itself… as if he had stuck a not-quite-clean Knife in his pocket. It had been covered before when he was standing, but now it stood out as plain as day. She looked away, not wanting him to catch her staring at the proof of his guilt. 

“It is blood. The killer must have committed the crime here in the Kitchen, with the Knife,” Colonel Mustard said pompously.

_You would know_ , she thought. 

*** ***

They gathered in the Library, since Mr. Boddy was still in the Study.

Colonel Mustard had told the group about the Secret Passage and the faint bloodstains, and was now looking around the group as if he were trying to stare down the guilty party. He seemed to have settled on Mrs. White. After all, he told the group, if anyone would have known about the Secret Passage in the Kitchen, the maid and cook would know. She let the scene go on awhile, enjoying the spectacle of five people arguing amongst themselves in the most ridiculous fashion. She slipped the pasteboard cards from her purse, sliding them inside her shoe, before she made her next move. 

They would be a little hard to explain, she thought.

“I have an idea,” she finally said brightly. “Perhaps the killer brought something away from the Kitchen, rather than leaving a clue.”

Mrs. Peacock nodded. “That sounds like an excellent idea, Miss Scarlet.”

“I propose the gentlemen turn out their pockets, and the ladies empty their purses,” Miss Scarlet continued, opening her own bag as she spoke. Mrs. Peacock and Mrs. White followed suit, while Professor Plum and Mr. Green did so as well.

Only Colonel Mustard stood there, glaring at her. She was suddenly glad to not be alone with him.

“Why, Colonel Mustard,” Mrs. Peacock said in her oh-so-annoying voice. “Aren’t you going to turn out your pockets?

He did, slowly. Everyone could see the bright red stain on the lining of one pocket.

“I Accuse Colonel Mustard, in the Kitchen, with the Knife.”

It was fun to win, she thought, watching as Colonel Mustard made a move in her direction, and was stopped by Professor Plum and Mr. Green…

*** ***

The lights snapping back on, along with the radio blaring, woke her up. She had been slumped over on her desk, where she kept her game of Clue set up. 

She’d had the weirdest dream, she thought, imagining that she was actually inside the game. Then she looked at the board more closely. 

Three cards spilled out of the envelope in the designated spot – Colonel Mustard. The Knife. The Kitchen.

All of the tokens were clustered in the Library, and it seemed as if the purple and green tokens were keeping the yellow one away from the red one. 

_Just like in her dream_ , she thought. _Or maybe it hadn’t been a dream at all…_

**Author's Note:**

> So I hope you liked it! I'm a huge fan of the game and the movie, so I had a great time with this. I hope it scratches your itches.
> 
> The version the girl is playing is the Retro 1986 edition that's currently available at Target. Mall Madness, Sweet Valley High, and (unfortunately for many older siblings) Candy Land all existed in the late 80s/early 90s. Thankfully I had a father who would play board games with me.


End file.
